WOMEN HUMORISTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 770, 19 March 1910, Page 11

WOMEN HUMORISTS.

A current American magazine gives an interesting account of some of the women humorists of the day, and the story of how. i "Mrs. . Wiggs" became famous is rather unusual in this age of boom. Some years ago eight or ten Louisville - women of, literary tasto formed a little' club amongst themselves, which came to'be known as the. Authors'- Club.- At one of the meetings a ' member brought the manuscript of a. book 'she had written and read it aloud. It was enthusiastically endorsed, and the writer was urged to send it to a publisher.' The author was Alice Hegan ; Kice, and the' book "Mrs. Wiggs of . the. : Cabbage Patch.", When Mrs. Wiggs 'first found her way out to the reading public it was with no' great blare of trumpets. ; The. publishers ,—apparently with little sense of. humour —had ,, no : great expectation for it,: arid hesitated 'before printinß an edition of two thousand copies. That edition was sold , within a month, and another two thousand printed. Then came another, and at the end of six months the presses were! turning out ten thousand a month, which later rose to forty thousand! a month, and so, the tale went on until forty-three editions had been printed,; and now after: eight years .five hundred copies a month are printed and sold. .-;...' Few women, or men either, have had such a success with a first book, but, Mrs. Hegan Rice is only one of a long list of ■women whose names are as well known here,a3 in-America. In fact, it is claimed by. Mr.: [Maurice, editor of •' the "Bookman," that three-fifths of .the new school of American, humour is feminine. In her countryman's estimation, Miss Carolyn Wells stands first, and her parodies ■ are undoubtedly clever and . amusing: Miss Wells is said to have an original rule for , measuring the length of * her books. Her publisher once asked why, she always sent ner manuscript in a 51b. candyrbox. Miss Wells replied: "When I feel that I am going to writo a book I always buy a 51b. box of candy and a pint of ink. Then I begin to write. And. when, the candy is all gone and the ink. is all used up I .know that the bopk is.long enough." Then there are Anne Warner, creator of "Aunt Mary"; Kate Douglas Wiggin, whose "Rebecca" and ."Penelope" are friends of us all; George Madden Martin, author of "Emmy Lou," Jean Webster, Rose O'Neill, Mary Stewart Cutting, and many others, who help to make the world bright, and by their flashes of wholesomo humour contribute to the health of the commnnity, and do much to relieve tho tension of tho' strenuous modern life.

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